


Take My Hand (Erase the Past Forever)

by COJCat



Series: Forever Alight [2]
Category: L'ultimo Terrestre | The Last Man On Earth (2011), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Fusion, Child Murder, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kenzarelli verse, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mentions of Murder, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, One True Pairing, Pierre needs hugs, Roberta deserved better, Roberta is a nice thing, TOG adjacent JoexNicky ship, The Old Guard - kenzarelli, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trans Female Character, True Mates, alpha Pierre, and nice things, based on a trans female character, but this is a/b/o, canon within MOTOE, gratuitous use of Nicky's lines, nothing graphic mentioned, omega Roberta, relating to a canon MOTOE character, so everything is different, we are giving her better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:13:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29068608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/COJCat/pseuds/COJCat
Summary: The morning after Roberta and Pierre’s mating, it’s time to face the music - and confess his past.This is Part 2 of the Forever Alight series.
Relationships: Pierre-Paul Michel/Roberta (L'ultimo Terrestre)
Series: Forever Alight [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109792
Comments: 15
Kudos: 58





	Take My Hand (Erase the Past Forever)

**Author's Note:**

> This part is mostly fluff and comfort and a little smut, more smut to come in part 3! 
> 
> The tags mention references to a child murder that actions that followed - it is canon within MoTOE and relates to that. There is nothing graphic mentioned here. 
> 
> Once again, thank you to all those cheering me on via the Top!Joe Discord server, and especially to Ririsay and Bjtremike for always squealing at me about this au. 
> 
> Title taken from “Love Exists” by Amy Lee.

Late spring, 1934 

Morning dawned to the rolling of the carriages as The Orient Express thundered towards Paris. The early morning sunshine was pouring into the suite, Pierre found himself wrapped around a naked Roberta as she slept with her back pressed into his chest. The bite on her neck looked a little raw, but perfect, it belonged there. He nuzzled near it, so not to irritate her skin further, breathing in the scent of her. He would not have her in any discomfort if he could help it. 

He had been awake a while, watching her, still in awe that he had somehow been thrown into the path of Roberta. His fingers ghosted over her skin, a feather-light touch. Over her shoulders, down the side of her body, carefully tracing the rise and fall of her curves, almost afraid that if he actually touched her, she would vanish before his eyes. The feelings he had for her were so infinitely vast … they should be terrifying. Yet, he had never felt so calm. Here with her, he was home. 

At thirty-two, Pierre wasn’t a naïve teenager. He’d been in love before, had seriously considered mating the omega he was with before - everything. She had been all he could have hoped for, but something had always held him back from that next step, and the reason was now obvious. She had not been his mate. 

He knew love didn't happen instantly, it was something that blossomed with time, but his soul knew Roberta’s, and that was as close as it would probably get. The real love he knew would form, grown over time and with acquaintance, felt like an adventure with her. 

Her heat had cooled in the last few hours, as had his rut, it allowed him time to reflect… and consider his actions over the last twenty-four hours more coherently. Although he could not fault the outcome, he was ashamed that he had lost control, in rut... _at work_. Half of his uniform had been left strewn across the train from his need to get to her. The only reason he had it back was thanks to the older omega who had assisted them. She had been the only non-threatening scent on the train when his brain was deep in the rut. 

Roberta stirred in his arms and rolled around to face him, looking sleepy, happy and fucked within an inch of her life. ‘Pierre?’ she asked, her thumb caressing his cheek. ‘You smell... worried?’

He nuzzled into her hand, then kissed her palm. ‘It’s nothing to worry yourself about, mon cœur.’ _My heart._

She gently pulled his face back to hers, forcing him to look at her. ‘Pierre, you are my mate, more than that - you are my _true mate_. Your troubles are my troubles. Please share your burdens with me?’

‘I was thinking about how our mating came about and… the _public_ nature of it.’

‘Are you concerned about repercussions?’ 

‘This is the Orient Express, I hardly behaved in a manner fitting -’

She stopped him with a kiss. ‘No, our mating will _never_ be a source of shame. You are mine; I will not have you concerned with that. Once we’d found each other, nothing was going to keep us apart. Nothing will.’

‘I will still have a great deal of apologising to do.’

‘I was not an innocent bystander, Pierre, I threatened to kill your boss,’ she chuckled. ‘And it was not an idol threat, he was keeping me from you. I suspect a few words from me might go a long way.’ 

He laughed, but it didn’t mask the concern. 

‘Something more than our mating is troubling you, isn’t it? May I hazard a guess that it relates to whatever has you concerned that I will not want to be your mate once I become aware?’

‘Beautiful _and_ intuitive,’ he replied, stroking the hair from her face. 

‘We will always be tuned into one another, tesoro. I saw it in the first moments on the platform, something dark has enveloped you, a sadness. Do you wish to tell me what troubles you?’ 

‘I… yes… and no. I don’t want to keep anything from you, but this is...’ 

‘Something big.’

‘The biggest.’

‘Then please tell me, so we have nothing troubling you in the first days we are together, and you can live free of whatever darkness has distressed you.’

He sat up in bed, against the headboard and sighed, she crawled in next to him, his arm falling around her, pulling her into him, unsure if she would even want to be near him after the truth. But he owed her that. If she chose to terminate their bond, it would probably finish him, but she deserved to hear it from him. 

‘A few years ago, my sister, Susanne, was working in America as a nursemaid to the Armstrong family. Their daughter, Daisy was only two when she was abducted and murdered, taken from her bedroom in the night. The man responsible, Cassetti, was on the run. The local police and lawyers wanted a swift resolution, because Daisy’s family were high profile. They found an easy target in my sister. She was convicted of the crime, though innocent and… She killed herself in prison, only to be exonerated shortly after… The pain of it never left my mother, her health declined. I spent the last few years caring for her. I’m sure the loss of Susanne led to her losing her mind, and an early death almost four months ago.’

‘Oh, amore mio,’ _Oh, my love,_ ‘This man, Cassetti, he murdered a tiny pup, for money?’ she whispered sadly, nuzzling into his neck, trying to draw him into a kiss. 

As desperately as he needed to accept the comfort she wanted to give, he had to finish. 

‘Please, mon amour, I have to tell you everything, you should know it, no matter how painful.’

‘Whatever you need.’ She pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth, he found himself leaning into it. 

It gave him the strength to continue. ‘The death of little Daisy impacted on many people and yet the man who killed her was living his life as he pleased. He was in Istanbul, having changed his name, a con man masquerading as an art dealer. Those of us affected, including her close family, felt he was never going to face justice, so a plan was devised. A plan that would see him board this train, and not leave it alive. It was all arranged, the one who organised it ensured everyone would be on the train at the same time, including myself as I was working. Everyone who suffered pain at that man's hands, had a hand in his end. We each took a turn with the knife. Twelve of us in total.

‘One thing none of us could have predicted though, was a last-minute passenger change, a detective. He unravelled our identities and plans astonishingly fast… But rather than ensuring we were all handed over to the police, he let us leave to carry on with our lives.’

Her scent had remained calm throughout his confession, but he could not see her face, he did not know what he would see when he looked into her blue-green eyes.

He didn’t need to in the end. She reached up and kissed him, the passion behind it taking him by surprise as she ended up straddling him, his initial amazement replaced with the need to grip her tight and never let her go.

‘I’m glad you killed him,’ she said against his lips, a little breathless. ‘He was an evil man, who would have no doubt hurt many more people should he have lived.’

Pierre sagged against her; relief palpable as he kissed her shoulder. ‘I cannot tell you how much it helps to hear you say that.’

‘You are a good, kind alpha, I can feel that,’ she said between kisses, getting progressively deeper as he felt arousal stir again. ‘You are strong and moral, even if that might not tie in with social morality. I am proud of you,’ she rotated her hips, slick beginning to coat his growing cock, ‘proud to know my mate can protect his family... _our_ family…’ 

His breathing hitched as his dick caught against her rim, rocking her hips so the tip entered. 

‘Any pups we have will be lucky to have you as their father, Pierre.’ 

This time, she took him inside in one go. He wondered if the feeling of her around him, hot and tight, would always be one able to draw sounds out of him he had previously thought impossible. 

‘You fill me up so good, alpha, no one will ever know me like this again, _only you_.’

‘ _Only me_ ,’ he growled. He ran his hands over every inch of her he could reach, as she gently rocked in his lap. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her if he tried. This was the first time that sex wasn’t completely fuelled by pheromones, even though their heat/rut was still lingering. This wasn’t about _matefuckbreed_ as the last few times had been, but building on the bond they had lit between them. It was not a race to knotting. 

‘I can’t believe I get to hear this,’ he said as she gasped, his hips thrust up to meet hers, pushing as deep into her body as physically possible. ‘Only I will get to see you like this from now on, you’re mine,’ he said with his mouth latching onto a nipple, rolling his tongue around the hard nub. 

‘Yes… yes, I’m yours, just as you are mine…’ 

A thought came to him, ‘Then claim me too, show the world that there is only one omega for me, mon cœur, my mate.’

She paused, staring at him wide eyed, his cock still buried deep within her, slick having coated his thighs once again. ‘You’d allow your omega to claim you?’

He knew it wasn’t common for an alpha to wear a mating mark, but nor was having a true mate, and he wanted everyone to know he was hers. ‘You are mine; I am yours, I want the world to know that.’

Her response was to crash their mouths together, definitely claiming him with the kiss as her hips began to move in earnest this time, the heat building rapidly as his knot started to catch against her entrance. Bringing a hand to her cock, a few strokes had her coming as his knot locked and another intense orgasm pulsated through him, then the feeling of her teeth piercing the skin on his neck. 

****

The train was drawing closer to the Gare de Strasbourg, the Parisian stop and where Roberta was to disembark. She had paid out a small fortune for this trip, and although she could not say she had the full Orient Express experience - she had something infinitely better. 

The suite had a tiny shower room, beautifully appointed, but certainly not big enough to have both of them in at the same time. She had, with some effort, coerced Pierre to shower first. Though neither of them relished the prospect of washing off their scent, she was clear of her heat enough for rational thought and realise they would reek of sex. Just because everyone on this train knew they had spent the last day fucking each other senseless, did not mean she was not walking out of here looking immaculate, with her new mate by her side. 

If they were going to have to do the walk of shame, they would do it in style.

The scenery had melted from greenery and fields to ever increasing density of buildings, her bags mostly packed ready to depart. She stood in front of a mirror in a simple white day dress, her hair pinned up as Pierre stood behind her, fastening a string of pearls around her neck. She wanted these because they sat low enough so not to irritate the healing bite, and were simple enough to draw the eye to the mark on her neck, as she admired him in the uniform. 

Watching their reflections, she could not deny they made a handsome pair. 

Once complete, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, nuzzling into her neck. ‘I cannot believe fate gave me you, after everything.’

‘Earlier this year,’ she said, turning to face him, her arms linking behind his neck as his hands rested on her hips. ‘I was at home and something came over me. An unease, a need to leave Rome. I’d live there all my life, although I had travelled with my work, Rome had been my home. I just needed to leave. Nothing in my life felt right. Something was pulling me away.

‘I’ve been careful with my money over the years, I’ve managed to save a significant sum, so that should I be without work for a while, I had no need to rush to find another job. Once the theatre run I was on concluded, I rented out my apartment and travelled north. I had been working in Milan for a month when I felt that _pull_ again, I knew I had to leave. I didn’t know what made me buy a ticket for this train, for this time, or spend as much as I did to secure this suite, it was out of character and impulsive…’ She cupped his face with both hands as she rested her head against his, feeling him sigh into her touch. ‘But now I do. I believe it’s because we’re meant to find each other. It’s like destiny. I was being pulled to you. I don’t know how it works, but my mate needed me, and I found him.’

He kissed her, slow and deep and it stoked that last flame of heat. But they did not have time for that now. 

‘I just hope I am worthy of you,’ he said, his lips ghosting over hers.

‘I know you are, you will be everything I need, as I will be for you.’

‘But... that doesn't change the fact that my boss has been onboard when I helped with Cassetti, and now our time together… He has every right to terminate my employment.’

‘Do not worry about it, tesoro. He was happy to keep you employed after Cassetti, because he knew it was the right thing to do. I also promise he will not say anything negative about our mating, because if he does, I will ensure everyone knows how he treated a true mate pairing. I guarantee it will hurt the profit margins. You and I will be alright, tesoro.’ 

She managed to raise a smile in him. As much as she loved the soulful, dark brown eyes that gazed back at her, she adored that smile.

‘When you get off in Paris, where were you meant to be heading?’

‘I have a reservation at a hotel, near the Palais-Royal Theatre where I was to work. But I do not wish to be parted from you.’

‘Good, because I cannot be parted from you. Not now I have you. But my apartment is small and impersonal. I’ve only been there a short time, after my mother died, I’ve barely unpacked because all I’ve done is work to try and keep myself occupied.’ 

‘Does it have a bed?’

‘It does.’

‘Then what more do we need?’

He chuckled against her lips and kissed her gently. 

‘My work here means I am away a lot,’ he said. 

‘My work means I keep late hours, but it is only temporary, a month's job… but we are newly mated, by law, we have a week to bond.’

‘So we do,’ he grinned and crowded her against the wall, kissing her again. 

They were interrupted by a knock at the door, the omega that had helped them. 

Pierre let Roberta go and she answered the door, with him behind her, to be greeted by the bright smile of their saviour. 

‘Good morning, you two look better,’ she admired them. 

Now that Roberta’s brain was able to register everything, it was clear the older omega was British. She was a petite woman with red hair, faded with greys, dressed in blue. 

‘Diane Bennett,’ she held out her hand, which Roberta accepted.

‘Roberta Ces - no, Roberta Michel,’ she smiled at him, he nuzzled into her cheek.

‘It sounds perfect,’ Diane said. ‘It is perfect because you were meant to be together.’

‘How did you know?’ asked Pierre.

‘That you were true mates? It takes one to know one. I’ve not come across another true mate pair other than Anne and I.’

‘Grazie,’ Roberta said, pulling the other omega into a hug. ‘For everything.’

Pulling out from the embrace, Diane took both of Roberta’s hands, placed a card in them then clasped them in her own. ‘This bond between you, if you nurture it, let it blossom, it will be the guiding light of your life, it will burn bright if you allow it to. We have never known another pair like us, we would love you to stay in touch, should you wish. If nothing else, please let us know that you’ve settled into your bond together, so we know you are well.’

Roberta looked to Pierre whose expression mirrored her own. ‘We’d love to.’

Diane beamed at them. ‘And fair warning, loves, Anne and I had six pups, if you want time together before they arrive, make sure you get the _good_ stuff before your next heat,’ she winked at them. ‘Now, Mr Bouc has been briefed… but I think you put the fear of God into him, Roberta, he will not be a problem today.’

‘We could not have had this without you, we cannot thank you enough,’ said Pierre.

‘Enjoy your lives, that is all the thanks we need.’ She went to kiss Roberta’s cheek, which she returned. ‘At the station, all the passengers will leave first, then you two, so that you are leaving without too much attention. I look forward to hearing from you both soon.’ 

They watched her leave, Pierre’s arms wrapping around her. ‘ _Six pups!_ ’

‘Too many or not enough?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ he chuckled, ‘but the idea of you filled with my pups does something to me.’

‘So I can feel,’ she grinned, pushing back into him. 

‘We are almost at the station,’ he sighed into her shoulder. ‘Let me call by my cabin to collect what I need, then we can be off here soon.’

‘And home.’

****

Pierre’s cabin, compared to where he had spent the last twenty-four hours, was tiny, functional. The train had pulled into the station and the passengers were all on the platform. Roberta was waiting for him in the walkway of the carriage when he felt his hackles rise. 

Bouc. 

He knew, logically, that Bouc was not a threat, but after yesterday his alpha was on high alert. Their heat and rut had tempered, but it had not ended, and someone, who had a reputation of philandering, was approaching his mate. 

He was at the door in an instant. Bouc raised his hands almost immediately. It was also clear from his startled expression that he was wary of them, especially Roberta. Pierre could not help the smirk that crept onto his face.

‘Michel, I will not come any closer. I apologise for yesterday. I was not in possession of all the facts.’

Roberta placed her hand in Pierre’s, grounding him instantly. 

‘We also apologise,’ she replied. ‘It was not something either of us could have predicted, but apologise for the inconvenience it caused.’

‘Other than making sure no one came near here; it was no inconvenience.’

Pierre did not believe that for a moment. They were without a conductor overnight; others would have had to cover the position in his absence. However, he could not deny how his chest swelled with pride that his mate was fierce and had this wealthy beta cowering again.

‘Still,’ Roberta continued, ‘You were a man down, but we thank you for your understanding. I can also appreciate how it must have appeared to you, an alpha claiming his mate, knowing the history of that alpha.’

Bouc raised an eyebrow, ‘Michel has appraised you of recent events?’

Pierre answered with a harsh tone, ‘She is my _mate,_ there will never be anything hidden from her.’

‘That’s… I’m glad. I’m pleased you seem to have found the peace Poirot wished you to find.’

‘I did,’ he softened, stroking her face. 

‘And due to your mating, Michel, you are of course granted your seven days Bonding Leave. But you have not taken time off for a while. Please, extend it to fourteen days. You will not be on the roster until then.’

‘Merci, Monsieur Bouc.’

Roberta curled into him, even though she wasn’t much shorter than him, resting her head on his shoulder. Pierre could feel he was beginning to lose himself in her again.

‘I will leave you both to alight, your luggage is on the platform. See you in fourteen days, Michel. Madame Michel, I hope to see you on-board again soon.’

Watching him leave settled Pierre’s alpha, as did the prospect of two whole weeks of nothing but bonding with Roberta. 

‘Pierre?’

‘Mon cœur?’

‘Take me home, _alpha_.’

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned for part 3 coming soon!
> 
> Also – Bjtremike and I are working on another AU story for Roberta and Pierre – this one is BIG and is also a TOG crossover. It’s a lot of fun, you won’t want to miss it! We hope to bring you part one in the near future.


End file.
